Happy Easter...belated...

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. The McBryder clan certainly did.
I am slowly getting back into playing violin - I had a "church gig" on Sunday. Two services. Sammy and David came to watch the second service. Given that Sammy hasn't spent much time in a church, I was a little concerned with how she would do (the message had been long during the first service - and it ended up being even longer in the second!). But she was great, making the people in the pew behind her laugh when she asked at the very end of the service "is it done?" It was cute watching her and David sing.

The Easter Bunny came to visit during her nap, so we had fun watching as she found her hidden eggs and basket. The weather was cold, rainy and extremely windy, so the bunny was nice to hide everything in the house! Then we went next door and had dinner with my parents. And then we took a dip in the hot tub. All in all, quite enjoyable.

I don't have many pictures, apparently our camera battery has died and we are without replacements. But here is one of my new favorites...

We've gotten a kick out of some of the fun things that Sammy is saying nowadays. Though I should probably discourage her from playing with her food, it cracks me up to hear her saying things like: (holding a pea in each hand) "here is a little pea looking for the mommy pea. Where is the mommy pea? In Sammy's mouth!"

Or, we were in the store the other day and Sammy wanted me to hold her. I told her that I wasn't going to because my back hurt. So I asked her, do you want to push the cart or sit in the cart. She opted for sitting in it. Then she quickly changed her mind, so I got her out of the cart and put her on the floor. She said "I want to kiss you Mommy". "Oh, ok Sammy" as I leaned down. "No, on the back" (we do this thing where we kiss elbows or knees or ears, etc). So she kissed me on the back and said "Now your back is better and you can hold me!"

No, she isn't eating a lemon, she is showing off her new trick - the wink!

This weekend (the 30th), Sammy moved into a new "Big Girl Bed". It's a cute toddler sized bed that our friends loaned to us. We went to pick out sheets, but realized we will have to go to a speacialized store for toddler sheets. So we just got a Tinkerbell pillow. Sammy took her first nap and nighttime sleep like a pro. So, we upped the bar:

Yesterday, we couldn't find the binkie for her naptime. She usually has it on her bed, but it had gotten moved and wasn't readily visible. I found it later, but thought I would use the opportunity that had presented itself. Surprisingly, she didn't cry (as she has in the past, at the mere thought of giving up her beloved binkie (pacifier)). However, she also didn't sleep. For three hours she didn't sleep. So I gave up trying to get her to take her nap, figuring it was going to be a long evening. We went to cousin's house that evening and took a nice walk down to the beach. Came back, got into pjs, brushed teeth, read a book, gave some milk. No sleep. So, I realized I didn't want to have to go through this twice (at cousin's house and then later when we got home), so she and I drove back home (at 9pm). Now, Sammy is notorious for not sleeping in the car. Sure enough, we are halfway home, I look back and she has fallen asleep. I quickly woke her up and kept her awake and talking until we got home. She got into bed, got her music turned on and promptly crashed. And, surprisingly, she sleep through until 4:30 at which point she woke up looking for her binkie. But we got her back to sleep pretty quickly.

So, first Binkie-less night down. I look forward to hearing how David's day went today!

Little Miss Sammy

California Grammy and I are on the same page again! I have had "Blog" on my Getting Things Done list for awhile now. So here I am :-)

Sammy is taking a nap, David is having a meeting with some of the co-op parents, and I am blogging while watching Project Runway. David has been extremely busy with his responsibilities with Sammy's pre-school co-op. Unfortunately, our pre-school is getting kicked out of our space at the end of the year, so there is lots of work to do.

February has been an interesting month. It is hard to believe that back in the day we used to worry that Sam was going to be a pushover: she would stand back and watch as someone took her toy away; she would so quickly comply with our discipline (I remember putting her in time out and she would put her hands up on the wall!). It is apparent that we worried needlessly. She has no qualms with telling us exactly what is on her mind lately - and it is usually 180 degrees opposite of what we need her to do. ("Sammy, please go get your shoes so we can leave" will provoke "No, I don't want to go" and "Sammy, the sky is blue" will provoke "No, it is green", etc.)

She may be looking a bit cowed in this picture, but this is a picture of The Yes/No game. It consists of these two standing on a log and one of them (truth be told, it is usually Sammy) will start "No!", the other one will shout "Yes!" and repeat, ad infinitum.

Though I don't get to spend much time at the pre-school, I get the sense that Sammy loves it.

The last few years, David and I have gone on an executive retreat where we get our taxes done, our budgetting, and our filing pared down. It has been so beneficial. Last years retreat was our least productive, so this year we asked Grandma Helen and Grandpa Yak (Sammy's way of saying Jack) if Sam could stay with them for a weekend. I think everyone had a wonderful time. Sammy and Grandpa went down to the beach every day and made sandcastles and buried her feet, Grandma got to show Sam off at church, and David and I went to a cottage on the Oregon Coast, buckled down and got busy. It felt really good. Here we are taking a break:

We had a decent morning today - the sun poked out from the clouds for a bit so we got to work in our backyard: here is Sammy with a little worm.

And just so you can see here cute little Mariner's outfit here is another picture:

When Sammy isn't saying "NO!", she is keeping us entertained with her recitation of about a dozen different nursery rhymes: Baa Baa Black Sheep (her favorite), ABC's, Ride a White Horse, Yankee Doodle, Rock-a-Bye Baby, It's Raining It's Pouring, Rain Rain Go Away, Old King Cole, Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, and (my favorite) Finkle Finkle Little Star. She really is a lot of fun!